“The Liminal Zone” was a breath of fresh air when it comes to Junji Itō’s work. There are four short stories; Weeping Woman where a man and his girlfriend encounter a professional mourner at a funeral and his girlfriend finds herself unable to stop crying. Madonna, where Catholic schoolgirl Maria is preyed upon by the lecherous principal and becomes scorned by his wife, who believes herself to be the reincarnation of Mother Mary. The Spirit Flow of Aokigahara is a tale of two lovers who go into the forest of Aokigahara to commit suicide, but things in the forest are not all that they seem. And finally, Slumber is a story of a man who has nightmares where he commits violent murders only to awaken and see those murders on the news as having actually happened — but how can this be?
Previously, I had felt that I was growing away from Junji Itō as a writer and artist, but as explained in the afterword of the book, this collection was published through an online publisher rather than print, so page count was not a restraint. All four short stories were compelling, horrific, and entirely original. Each fully captured my attention (which is hard to do these days).
Three words that describe this book: Horror, manga, contemporary
You might want to pick this book up if: You enjoy horror and/or manga or if you were previously a fan of Itō’s work turned off by some of his recent works like “Black Paradox.”
-Victoria
This reader review was submitted as part of Adult Summer Reading. Submit your own book review here for a chance to have it featured on the Adults Blog.
